


A Phobos Farewell

by Markzucciniburger



Category: Cowboy Bebop
Genre: Angst, F/M, Some Fluff, buttersweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-17 16:53:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28977702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Markzucciniburger/pseuds/Markzucciniburger
Summary: Spike lives. And Julia lived. A hopefully respectful breaking off of an old relationship to start a new.
Relationships: Spike x Faye - Relationship
Kudos: 4





	A Phobos Farewell

**A Phobos Farewell**

“Bang.”

Numb.

That was the only sensation that Spiegel could feel.

He had a sinking feeling he wouldn’t survive his encounter with Vicious. All those years of helping that man, helping him build himself into an icon of terror and power.

But now it was over. The last 9x19 mm in his IMI Jericho had pierced the mans heart and he fell bloody on the ground. Trouble is, nothing comes free. And the blade cut spike, the venom making his blood feel like battery acid, his muscles screamed, His head pounded, warm blood leaked across his eyes, but it was done. He walked out to face the police, the light getting brighter and the air feeling warmer. He’d felt this pain before. The night Julia didn’t show up to the graveyard. The night he knew he’d never see her again.

Spike was finally at peace.

As spike would have wished to believe that was the end of his story.

But for spike, wishes were not horses.

Encapsulated in brilliant white light, spike felt himself lying in a cold white ground. His pain had vanished, and he didn’t have a scratch on him as he looked himself over. Struggling to his feet he observed his surroundings.

The bright white light had gone. What was around looked like a road next to a crosswalk. No cars or traffic noise was to be seen or heard. The air was warm, the sun was bright, and the sky blue.

“Where in the hell am I?”

“Bus stop, kid.” Said a voice from behind him.

Whipping around, spike saw a blue bench in a large hit to protect from the sun. On the bench sat an elderly black man, in a tan two piece suit reading over a letter.

“Bus stop?”

“That’s what I said.”

“I…..I don’t understand. What’s the hells going on here?”

“I’m waiting for the bus, that’s what’s going on here, Spike. But I’ve a feel in’ that’s not what you meant.” The man chuckled.

“Yea-wait how did you know my name? Who are you?”

“Hm. Trust me kid, how I know your name ain’t all that interesting. But since your curious, they call me red…dunno why…maybe it’s because I’m Irish.” The man chuckled at his own joke leaving spike all the more confused.

“Me? I’m headed to fort Hancock Texas. That’s where the bus is going. I’m going to see an old friend. He I got out of the joint recently, and so did he. Apparently he’s got this new hotel gig idea. Zihuatenjo, Mexico. Said he could use a man ‘knows how to get things.”

“Zihuatenejo?” Spike said with a smile. Thinking about the way it rolled off his tongue.

“Pretty name ain’t it? Only read about such a place. Never thought it could be real. It took a bird whose feathers were too bright to be locked in a drab little cage to make me hope for something like that.” The man said looking out to the distance.

“What about you spike? Where you headed to?”

This broke spike out of his trance.

“I…..I’m not really sure….I..knew this girl….thought I was in love for awhile…I wanted to run away…have a life with her but….I don’t know…I guess she didn’t really want that after all…I spent three years drifting around space…”

“With friends?”

“Yeah.” Spike smiled slightly. “Some damn good ones. Guy who helped keep me on the straight arrow, Jet. This little gremlin Ed, and a pooch, Ein…and…” spike trailed off.

“And what?...no wait, don’t tell me, a girl?”

“Yeah…one a in a million that one..and I managed to fuck things up with her too. Guess I’m just cursed.”

Red was quiet for a moment.

“You sound like me. Always feelin’ guilty about the past. Can’t let anything go….it’s a bad habit kid. One you oughta kick.”

“Kick? How?”

“By lookin forward. Letting bygones be bygones. Sounds to me like whatever real trouble you had is far behind you. You’d do well to leave it behind you. Look forward.” The man looked away from spike and down the street.

“That looks like my bus.” He said, standing up and shoving the letter into his jacket pocket. Flagging the bus down, and stepped onto the first step. Before ascending, he turned to spike with a smile on his face.

“Want some advice, spike?...get busy living…or get busy dying!” He waved and got onto his bus.

Get busy living or get busy dying. The words echoed in spiked head. Suddenly his eye lids felt heavy and he felt himself drifting off in the bus stop.

When spike finally came too, the world was blurry and everything was in triples. Three pane windows with snow falling behind it, three copies of a tv, the works. The pain that he had dearly departed from had embraced him once more. Albeit in a severely weakened state. On his back was starched bed sheets. The exposed flesh that wasn’t covered in white bandages was clammy and warm. His ears could only pick up the sound of a muffled ECG machine, beeping in a steady rhythm.

“Country roads…take me home….” Muttered a voice off to spikes right. He could recognize that voice anywhere. He turned his head and saw none other than Faye Valentine. Her purple hair un combed and her eyes puffy from long past tears.

“F…..faye….” Spike croaked weakly.

Faye sniffed and looked over to him. Wordlessly she scooted her seat to be closer to him.

After a moment of silence, she finally spoke up. Her voice wobbily and full of hurt.

“Did you….find out if you were really alive?” She asks with a sniffle.

The guilt stabbed at spike. He reached for her hand.

“Yeah. I am.” Faye looked at him. And she saw him reaching for her hand.

“Faye…..sing…sing for me…please.”

Faye couldn’t stop the smile from coming to her face. She gently took spikes hand.

“Sure, cowboy.”

“Almost heaven. West Virginia. Blue ridge mountains shennendoah river. Life is old here, older than the breeze…”

Spike joined her weakly.

“Older than the mountains, woven like a breeze country roads, take me home, to the place, I belong

West Virginia, mountain momma take me home, country roads.

The 6 months were a blur. Recovery had gone quicker than the doctors had expected. Hell, the cloned intestine replacement surgery typically took three years to fully recover from and spikes had grown in and acclimated within a span of a few months. With recovery training and spikes dedication to Jeet Kune Do, he was back to his old self. With Jet mother hemming him about taking his anti inflammatory, anti biotic and pain medications, spike was coasting.

But what he never expected to happen was what happened with him and Faye. What started with her singing to I’m in the hospital came home teaching her Jeet Kune do to help him heal and for her to learn. That became the occasional dance and then came the eventual hookup. Drunk, passionate sloppy, spike felt something he hadn’t felt in years. He felt alive. He felt like he found his other half. Jet never said anything, because what needed to be said? He knew they liked one another from the start and he was getting tired of them being the last to know. They still bickered like cats and dogs over cigarettes, blanket hogging and couch spaces but that never came between them. As happy as spike was there was still something he felt he needed to do. One night spike was sitting on his bed, Faye lying topless next to him. Arguing intensely in his head. Minutes went by and he came to his conclusion. He pulled his pants and shirt on without a word and left a silent kiss on fayes sleeping cheek. Passing by the kitchen he leaves a note.

“Faye, went to grab cigarettes, eggs and beer. Be back soon.”

Securing himself in the sword fish 2 he blasted off into space, focusing his velocity to Phobos. Mars‘a doomed moon had been coveted into a bustling metropolis. Financial districts reached to the upper atmosphere. But this wasn’t where spike was going. Spike aimed for the red lights district. Parking it in a nearby alleyway.

He had gotten a tip that a certain someone had gotten a gig running bar and gambling den. Well, not so much a tip, more a threat from a red dragon syndicate underboss had made before spike put him on ice with vicious.

He entered the bar, a cloud of marijuana and space plant spiced tobacco hit him, and he coughed slightly. Loud music blared and the bar was drowned in a bright neon light. He wasn’t looking longer than ten minutes before he found her. Bright blonde hair.

She was polishing a part of an in patroned bar, and when she turned around to clean a glass, spike took this opportunity to sit dow.

“What’ll it be.”

“Scotch and soda.”

The woman looked up in surprise and turned around. A instant recognition was made bare across her face.

“Then after the drink, was hoping we could talk.”

**Later, outside the bar in the back**

“I heard the news, but I wasn’t sure it was true.”

“Yeah it’s true. Put a bullet in the bastards heart. Nearly killed me but I did it. Dead as a door nail.”

“…thank you.”

“My pleasure.”

They both grew quiet.

“…I guess there’s no easy way of saying this Julia…maybe you have and I haven’t seen it, but I think it’s time we move on with our lives….we wanted to be free. And we are. But I don’t think we have a future. Not together at least.” It hurt spike to say it. Every word was pained. But it needed to be said

Spike continued.

“We wanted to escape, and we did. But we thought that it would be a story book. We’d run off together. It’s bullshit. Let’s face it. Something will always be missing. The danger of it all.

“…I think I agree spike…”

“I thought you would.”

There was a sadness in her eyes, but a relief as well.

“At any rate, I’ll always treasure what we had together.”

“Me too spike. I’ll never forget you. But I’m still looking for something. And I can’t put that on hold.”

Spike lit her cigarette and then his own.

“I’m glad…farewell Julia…I hope you find what you’re looking for.” Images of Faye flashed through his mind. Both tasteful and not so much. “I know I have.”

They hugged after a moment and turned on there heels. Spike could tell she wiped away a tear as she turned.

“Hey Julia!”

She stopped.

“Get busy living…or get busy dying!”

Fin.


End file.
